Viramgaman

"Little more than 60km from Ahmedabad, there is this place Viramgam, an ancient town with fortification having five entrance gates. Munsar Tank, the finest example of civic architecture, is located on the western edge of the town. This is one of the largest man-made tanks in Gujarat, dating from the 11th (or 12th?) century. The tank epitomizes the fusion of hydraulic engineering and architectural aesthetic values of Minaldevi, who patronized the construction of this tank. The architectural style is similar to the Sahastralinga Talav of Patan. The shape of the tank is not a perfect rectangle, but like a Conch or Gomukh. Originaly there were 520 shrines on the bank of Munsar Tank, out of which 360 survive. Most of them are Shiva Shrines, along with a few Vaishnava Shrines. These shrines are typical of the early Chalukya architectural style. Each Shiva Shrine has 3 niches housing images of Mahakaal, Bhairava and Natesh. Two large twin temples, located in the middle of the south side, are also of great tourist interest. "
OK, what you all read above is taken from the great internet! So even I was quite eager to visit this munsar tank since a long time and finally managed to do so on 15th Aug 09. What me and sid got to experience can be best described as the pic below!

I mean, can you imagine the feeling of witnessing a dog peeing on the sexiest bike available and that too owned by you! But thats characteristic of this place! The carvings, sculptures, architecture is really good as described on the internet, especially the bigger twin temples with that layered wavy roof. We didn't count the number of small temples around the tank, not just because they were too many but because, to move around the place we had to be extremely cautious... some part of the place was functional as open-to-air public toilet of Viramgam! Sid and I was quite happy that the two girls, Pogo and Poorva refused to join us at last minute! But apart from the Munsar tank the trip was very nice, thanks to the extremely ride friendly weather and good road throught the ride! Even Sid was happy to ride whole 60km in one stretch which I never expected! :) ( may be because he was not riding his oldy goldy TVS victor but my Yamaha FZ... yes sadly the bike in the pic above!) The experience of riding on confusing narrow lanes of Viramgam was interesting, and so was the discovery of Sid's capability of conversing with buffaloes! We managed to enjoy. :)

For some good pictures visit my album on Orkut, and sid wil paste a link to facebook album in the comments, with some more interesting insights I guess.

(above pic is clicked by my 'dear friend' sid when I was on phone. Don't know whom to 'thank/blame', sid or the dog! both found the golden mean of their own passions)

My 10,000 km on Yamaha FZ 16 :)

4th Nov 2008 - 4th Aug 2009.
9 months 10,000 km Rs 10,000 of petrol!
everyday morning trips to office. :)
Dholka, Thol lake, Indroda nature park, Adalaj, Hathisinh temple, few aimless night rides. :)
photography (sadly I haven't clicked her enough properly, still searching for the dream model ;)
Top speed ride to Gandhinagar for Tabala concert.
one frightening oily skid recovery, :o
Please don't cut trees, they fall on bikes costing Rs. 3000 :(
my favourite slow turns, one crazy hairpin leaving NID parking challenging maximum lean angles. ;)
little tyre burnouts, hard front braking and clutchless gear-shifts (but still no stopies!) :(
everyday fast overtakes from Neharu circle to Shivaranjani bridge ;)
some of them causing my heart to beat as hard as enfield.
my pillion riders (almost everyone I wanted to be) ...... ;)
my dream pillion riders (menaka if not keira knightley) hehehehe ;)
Waiting for winter again, Modhera, Nal sarovar, Munsar tank still on plan only... :(
still planning for new paint scheme, performance kit, silencer etc
wish Vijay, Akash, sanjeev were around for unplanned trips... :(
Anyway now that I know her quite well, should take the experience few steps up ;)

Following is a video of my trip with Poorva on the never-ending thorny road (?) around Thol lake. The lack of road is quite visible, but it was a very amazing experience to ride to go nowhere....